Obscurity, The Epilogue

In which a young man inherits the Estate St. Vincent.

We last read The Fortieth Chapter, in which the truth was revealed. If you have recently joined us, start with The Prologue.

Years later, a most beautiful man inherited a most beautiful estate. It was a large plantation home in the yawning sprawl of the deep south, and he the choicest caretaker of it.

A man of many curiosities, this young man had established for himself an antiquities shop wherein he sold every manner of ornamentation befitting the times. His mother was a clothier of some repute, so he knew well the finer things in life, and most treasured among his possessions was a white gown, dripping with diamonds, once rumored to have been covered with blood before it was so thoroughly cleaned and cared for.

So it was that as this young man toured this beautiful home, and wondered at the many eccentricities of it, marveling that he was the owner of it. A large glass window framed the comings and goings of the river, and within those wood heavy shutters was a house as cloaked and mysterious as the woman who once owned it.

A stairway in the library led to nowhere, neither did the books within it have any meaning — some were written in languages no one had ever heard of and others contained no words whatsoever…